Hope For All
by Historican Keeper
Summary: AU; Tetra knew she wasn't normal. She just didn't know she was special to an unnamed third faction within the war. Now the young human finds herself traveling from the two main factions in hopes of finally ending the war. No pairing yet. Warnings inside! Don't like? Don't read! Starscream is from the Armada-verse while the Cassetticons are from G1
1. Tetra Anne Jones

Hello, I am Historican Keeper! This is my first story on this account and I hope you like it! Here's some background info on the Historica!

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**HISTORICA IS A UNKNOWN, UNNAMED THRID FACTION WITHIN THE CYBERTRONIAN WAR WHO STRIVE TO ACHIEVE PEACE ON BOTH SIDES. THEIR LEADER, BYTE, AND HER TROOPS WERE ONCE FIGHTING ONE ANOTHER, HALF BEING PERIVOOUSLY AUTOBOTS AND HALF BEING PREVIOUSLY DECEPTICONS. AFTER THE PRAXTON BOMBING, THE 25 CYBERTRONIANS WHO DEFECTED FROM BOTH SIDES ALL AGREED ON CREATING A NEW, SECRET FACTION FOR THOSE WHO NO LONGER WISHED TO FIGHT IN THE WAR.**

**SHORTLY AFTER THE ALLSPARK WAS LOST, BYTE LEAD THE 500 CYBERTRONIANS UNDER HER ORDERS OFF OF CYBERTRON AND THEY SPLITE UP INTO 50 GROUPS OF TEN, EACH GROUP GOING TO A PLANET RICH WITH ENERGON. IT WAS BOTH LUCK AND DESITNY THAT BYTE AND HER CLOSE FRIENDS CHOSE EARTH.**

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Hope you liked the background! On to the story!

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**Warnings: Violence due to: blood, energon, war, torture, and stubborn factions. Sexual content can, but will not exclude: Sexual jokes, sexual tension, mentions of sexual activities, the 'Talk' for both humans and Cybertronians, extreme humor during chapter breaks if possible. Borderline 'T-M' rating.**

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Five year old Tetra Anne Jones knew she would change the world the day her human family died. It had been a normal day, but a robber with a knife and gun would forever be engraved in her mind.

The man, looking up from her hidden jewelry.

Her scream, causing her father to rush in.

The man panicking and shooting her father dead.

Her running into her brother, who was ten at the time. He had pushed her in a coat closet and shut the door, something hitting the door a second later.

She remembered her mother's screams as the man found her hiding space. She remembered following her mother's last orders and pleas and running out the broken back door and into the forest.

She remembered running into her new family less than an hour later.

**~Hope For All~**

Tetra looked at the large beings in front of her, not the least bit scared. Just curious. She had woken up being carried by a warm, metal hand and was definitely feeling curiosity towards these beings. They spoke in clicks and whirls that made her sleepy. "Youngling," A sweet femme's voice said. "Where are your creators?"

Somewhere in her mind, Tetra knew they were talking about her parents. "Mummy tol' me to run." She answered. "She tol' me to run an' never look back."

there was another set of clicks as the hand holding Tetra was drawn to a multi-colored mech's chest. Tetra's unnatural green eyes slowly closed and her breathing slowed as a thrum of something akin to a heart lulled her to sleep.

**~Hope For All~**

The Historica watches as the human sparkling fell into recharge against the lime green mech's, who sported neon yellow and hot pink stripes, chestplates. "I've searched her facial plates." A snow white mech started once they realized she was not offlining. "Three point sixty-two breems ago, three bodies were found within their housing unit and five 'year' old Tetra Anne Jones was declared missing." There was more tension than ever as a deep green femme, taller than all but one, spoke.

"Thank you Frost." She sighed. She was approx. 30 feet tall and had black and brown accent marks along her deep green armor. She had vibrant green eyes, much like Tetra's.

"Byte," The lime green mech, whose name was Whisp, said softly, not wishing to make the sparkling online. He was approximately 17 earth years old. "We're keeping her, right? I've seen what the younglings who go to the youth centers here and it's not good." Byte looked at her sparkmate and second in command.

"What do you think Froth? Should we keep her?" She asked the blue mech in the back of the group.

Now Froth wasn't the ice-for-spark mech every bot thoughthim to be, but he wasn't exactly a soft-spark either. He let his slightly red but mostly green optics rest on the human child – as only Patch and him researched the natives of this planet – and felt a pull, similar to the one he had before he began courting Byte, but not as intense. Byte had been devastated when Patch, their medic, told them the could never have their own sparklings. '_Perhaps_,' He mused, gently taking the sparkling from the multi-colored mech. '_she is our hope._'

"Froth?" Patch's voice asked. The mech looked up at the softly colored mint green femme, a smile hidden behind his recovery mask.

"It would be beneficial to all if young Tetra Anne Jones stays." He answered, making the tension in the Historica base all but disappear. '_Most beneficial._'


	2. Twelve Years Later

**Hello again! Now, I have two reviews, but I wasn't able to get my settings changed until they were posted so let's just imagined what they said!**

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**Guest: Well... This isn't exactly my first story. I have another account registered here on Fanfiction, and most of my stories start out like that, but slow down over time. Note I said ****_most_****. I'm glad you liked the story! Also, thank you, each review helps the story stay good!**

**Nightshade (guest): Once again with the rushed! I do think about what I do and how I'm going to do it before I type it down. I always imagine myself in my character's situations, it's how my characters react the way they do. I'm glad you liked it!**

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**Now, on to the warnings and story! Please note the time skip of 12 years. I can't bring myself writing Tetra's life with the Historica just yet. Also, me no own transformers!**

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**Warnings: Violence due to: blood, energon, war, torture, and stubborn factions. Sexual content can, but will not exclude: Sexual jokes, sexual tension, mentions of sexual activities, the 'Talk' for both humans and Cybertronians, extreme humor during chapter breaks if possible. Borderline 'T-M' rating.**

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Tetra clipped on the last arm cuff and heard the suit hiss as it slowly formed to her body. She flexed her now covered fingers and looked at the mirror, her ashen face staring back at her, before she took a deep breath and said, "Activate." The lights at the seal around her face lit before her visor snapped down and covered any sign of her fleshy face. Blinking her eyes to get rid of the white spots, Tetra looked back into the mirror to see a masked femme with purple highlights running down where her armor came off while deep gray lines swirled around the armor, creating a pattern, but not for decoration. "Awesome!" She whispered as she did a 360, catching every view of her thanks to the mirrors.

"Glad you like it." A voice said and Tetra snapped around, rushing towards the lime green pede.

"Whisp, you're back!" She cried, ramming into the pede and not regretting it the least bit. "They said you wouldn't be back until a week after we went into recon!" Whisp laughed and scooped the seventeen year old up, ignoring her protests.

"Of course I'm back! You think I would miss my sister's first recon mission?" He said with a laugh, walking out of the room and going to the right, towards the bridge. "So, who is recon-ing with you?" He asked as she settled down on his palm, her legs swinging off of his hand because she couldn't sit criss-cross.

"I dunno." She shrugged. "As long as it isn't Kevlar, I'm fine." Kevlar was a pale red mech who was constantly trying to get Tetra – or Shadow to the Historica – to share his affections, but all he got was an order from an overprotective father figure to never go 'near his precious sparkling or risk termination'. Whisp rolled his optics, but agreed with her. Kevlar was a mech who would stop at nothing to get Shadow to become his.

"Maybe it'll be Chaos." He suggested, making the human blush behind her mask. "Can you take the visor off? You can turn the lights off as well." Shadow nodded and the mask flipped open before the lights turned off.

"Fresh air!" Shadow joked, getting a laugh. They appeared at the bridge a minute later and Whisp set her down as they both walked through the door. Byte, who was sitting in her chair, looked up and smiled at her adopted creation before the smile dropped, remembering why she was dressed like that.

"Soldier Shade." She said formally, tipping her head.

"Byte." Shadow responded, her right hand forming a fist and crossed her chest, the fist resting on her shoulder, like when she used to say the pledge of allegiance. "What are my orders today, my _legilacie_?" The last word was from a language that one of the three Historican teams that had joined the famous Byte and her chosen nine over the twelve years, Kevlar being one of them.

"Is everyone here?" Froth asked as Byte simply told Shadow, "Go and stand in rank. We will inform everyone in due time." Shadow stood to the right of Firkin, but to the left of Patch, signaling that she was Patch's medical assistant. The redhead nervously shifted, looking at the 20+ foot beings on either side of her, half wishing there were Historican shorter than 20.69 feet, even if it was just by a foot.

"Why are we here?" Gillian grumbled, glaring at the two Historican leaders.

Byte vented and looked at all of her companions. "We are able to end the war, but we must do so in secret. We will divide into groups of three or four and go into separate outposts of both Autobots and Decepticons, slowly earning their trust and seeing the right and wrong." She started. Froth cleared his 'throat' and held up a data pad.

"I have a list of who is to be assigned where and how they are getting there." He said, taking over for his mate. "Whisp, Kevlar, Gillian, you are assigned to Autobot Base _Freedom_ in the Sentora system." Shadow peeked out of line and looked at her brother sadly. They would be separated by another solar system. "Patch, Lasilo, Jokan, Decepticon base _Extermus_." And so the list went, reading out twenty one names, making Shadow frown. It was obvious that Froth and Byte were staying together, as they were one of the five bonded pair within the Historica ranks, but why was her name not called? "You have a breem to report to your designated ship for departure. Hope forever more soldiers."

Shadow didn't even recall the others around her moving as she stared at her adopted parents in shock and numbness. She felt a hand wrap around her and followed the pink and yellow lines to a worried Whisp, who read her so easily. "I'm sure they forgot to list your name with Patch!" He said in a false chipper tone, knowing the human female would spark-line at the chance to try to organize the Decepticon ranks.

"No, I know them." Shadow said, shaking her head sadly. "I wasn't assigned a position, so I'm staying here. Froth might go to the Decepticons here while Byte and I go to the Autobots." She added in a sad, hopeful tone. "But have fun in the Sentora system, yeah? Bring me back something." Whisp chuckled and gave her a light one finger noggie, making her squeal in laughter. He was halfway out the doorway when she remembered something very vital about her dearest brother. "And it better not be as cheap as the price was!" She screamed.

"No promises!" Whisp yelled back, making her huff. There was an amused laugh and she turned to look at Byte, who was shaking her head.

"Oh, my daughter, you know Whisp." She said. Shadow ducked her head, but then looked up.

"Why wasn't I on the roll call?" She asked, making her 'mother' fall silent. Froth and Byte shared a look as she continued to speak. "Do you not trust me? Is my training unfinished? Am I supposed to stay here at base to make sure all of the groups are online and in contact with one another?"

"Oh, Shadow, we trust you very much." Byte answered.

"While you have yet to take your final medic test," Froth started, his optics softer than they've ever been – to any bot besides Whisp, Patch, and Byte anyways. "you are a very skilled woman and that's why we are making sure you stay on earth,"

"Where all the action is." Byte finished, activating her holoform. Her holoform had cropped deep green, almost brown, hair and bright green eyes, small scars marring her face here and there. Byte handed her daughter a human sized data pad and the human felt her eyes widen at the post. "We, the senior staff, decided to not call you post because there was going to be one to protest against it."

Shadow slowly looked up from the data pad and at her Cybertronian parents. "I..." She closed her mouth when words escaped her before she lunged forward and wrapped her adoptive mother in a desperate hug. While Shadow wanted to help straighten the madness within the Decepticon ranks, she didn't want to do it _alone_ and on the _**Nemesis**_ of all ships.

"Your vitals will be constantly monitored by Froth while we're stationed at the main bases." Byte said in a soothing tone, rubbing Shadow's metal covered back. "Why else do you think we gave you an outfit similar to Soundwave's? Had you been going to the Autobots, you wouldn't need armor."

"Thank you." Shadow finally whispered. "How... How am I going to get there though?" She asked, breaking their hug and looking at her 'father', who knelt down and held her close to his chest plates, like what he did when she woke up crying the few months after her human parents' deaths. "How are you going to stay with the Autobots? They have record of you abandoning them." She asked Byte, who laughed.

"Holoforms are very real my sweet sparkling." The Historica commander answered. "This human form will be constantly on while my real body stays here, like so." As if to prove her point, the human body of Byte stayed active as her Cybertronian form's optics online and both versions smiled at Shadow.

"So you're going as a human to the Autobot base while I'm going as a... humanformer to the Decepticon base." Shadow said, stuggling for the word to describe what she was at the moment. Both of the Historica laughed at her word choice, but nodded.

"Yes. You have weapons in there," Byte used her human form to point to Shadow's covered hands and forearms. "And here." Shadow felt a hand on her backplates and twisted around to see the slight bulge. "Just think about using them and for Primus' sake, remember to aim."

"Yes Danni."

**~Hope For All~**

Shadow pressed a hidden button on her armor and watched as they shifted into a blue denim jacket, a green v-neck shirt, and black leather pants. Her metallic boots had changed into knee length leather boots. She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror before stepping out of the washroom. She sat in Froth's passenger seat as Byte's holoform slide into the driver's, pulling down a pair of designer sunglasses and placing them over her eyes, smiling madly. Shadow looked at her, blinking slowly before just shaking her head and looking out the windshield. "What?" Byte asked.

"You're doing it again."

"What again?"

"That _grin _again."

"You mean this grin?" And to ask, Byte grinned even more madly, making Shadow shudder and shrink back away from her.

"_YES!_" Shadow exclaimed. Froth roared in laughter with his mate as their sparkling squirmed, not liking being laughed at, but tried to get used to it. "I'll contact you as soon as I can, I swear." Shadow promised as Froth stopped on the outskirts of Jasper, Nevada.

"What do you do to attract the Decepticons?" Byte asked before Shadow left the cab of the 4x4 truck.

"Attempt to contact Soundwave and if that doesn't work stake out the nightraces for Knockout." Shadow quoted. Byte blinked back the clear tears in her eyes as their eyes met for the last time in a few weeks. "Bye Danni." She stepped out of the car and hugged the man who appeared from no where. He had buzzed blonde hair and red-green eyes. A scar ran parallel to his eyes, crossing his nose. "Bye Opi."

"Stay safe, my little spark." Froth murmured into her hair. "You will have to do things you cannot imagine to do to gain their trust. I am so sorry I could not go instead." Shadow nodded and gave his holoform one last squeeze.

"I'll talk to you in a week or two." She promised. She stepped away from the two and watched as they drove off. Shadow walked down the street, unsure of what to do. She rubbed her arms and noticed a yellow sports car with black windlines, no driver, dropping off a boy of twelve years of age. '_Of course the Autobots would be here._' She thought. Shadow shook her head and continued down the street, looking out for anything that stood out besides the Autobots, who were doing a good job of keeping low with the few slip ups. Shadow took out her phone like data pad and began to tap in the code for the information on how to best get the Decepticons attention. She looked up just as she bumped into a teenager just a year younger than her wearing a long grey tee shirt and jeans, his floppy black hair a contrast against his cobalt eyes. "Sorry!" Shadow said, jumping up and quickly deactivating her pad. "I didn't see you there." The teen picked up the pad and Shadow felt slight panic.

"Huh, this looks like something one of my friends has." He merely said, handing it to her. Shadow forced a laugh to come out, realizing he was with an Autobot. "I'm Jack Darby." '_S_c_rap!_' Shadow thought.

"Tetra Johnson." Shadow half lied, shaking his hand. "You work at K.O., right?" She asked, remembering seeing him sitting at the drive-thru those nights she had to get groceries for herself. At his guarded expression, Shadow smiled. "I was walking home when I saw you."

"Oh, yeah, I work there." Jack said, believing there was nothing suspicious of this human. "I think I've seen you around before..." He dropped off and shook his head. "So, where do you live?" He asked.

"A few miles that way, towards the Ironwood Forest." Shadow answered, nodding her head towards the Historica base.

"You know the last family that lived in the Ironwood house was killed, right?" Jack asked, his eyes wide. Everyone in Jasper knew the tale of the Jones' Murder and how Tetra Jones was declared dead after a year of searching for her. Shadow smirked and nodded, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I know. It adds charm to the house if you ask me." She said in a completely sick tone. "What about you city boy? Where do your roots come from?" Jack seemed taken aback by her tone, but 'realized' who he was dealing with. '_Great._' He thought. '_Another Miko. I don't think this town can take another Miko_.'

"I was born and raised here." Jack answered. "So... are your parents here?" He meant for it to come out nonchalantly, but he ended up sounding nervous. Shadow heard this and smirked.

"Nope. I'm supposed to get in contact with a few friends soon." She answered, looking at the sun. "Hmm... maybe we can catch up sometime though. How's... four months from now?"

"Four _months_?" Jack asked in shock. "Why so long?"

"My friends can be... uneasy and overprotective of their stuff. It's going to take a while for me to actually be able to touch anything of theirs." She shrugged. There was a beep form her data pad followed by two shortened ones and she grinned madly. "See you then, Jackson Darby!" She said before taking off. Jack could only turn around and watch her in shock as she became nothing but a dot in the background. He could easily piece the pieces together and what he saw was _not_ pretty.

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**No need to say that it's rushed by Tetra/Shadow already being assigned to the ****_Nemesis_****, but if she was assigned off world and to a planet where she couldn't breath, we really wouldn't have a story, now would we? If you guys want me to, I can put a chapter up to Tetra/Shadow thinking of her memories of growing up around the Historican faction.**

**Review if you liked it and follow/favorite it if you love it so far!**


	3. Contact

Thanks to all of you reviewers! Here are my responses!

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**Answerthecall: I'm glad you like my story so far. I'm trying to keep my OC well balanced. I hope you like what I have in store for this chapter!**

**Guest: UPDATE! I kept up the great work, or at least I think I did... Tell me, please!**

**Dragon of Yin and Yang: Thanks! Hope you like this chapter!**

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I do not own Transformers! I am merely using them in a story I created.

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**Warnings: Violence due to: blood, energon, war, torture, and stubborn factions. Sexual content can, but will not exclude: Sexual jokes, sexual tension, mentions of sexual activities, the 'Talk' for both humans and Cybertronians, extreme humor during chapter breaks if possible. Borderline 'T-M' rating.**

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Shadow sat on the side of the plateau and pressed the button, her clothes becoming her armor once more. She didn't activate the lights or flip the visor down as she looked at the sky, wondering where Whisp was and how Patch was doing. She sighed and activated her data pad once more, looking at the instructions again. How was she supposed to find untapped energon and send a picture on that frequency? Shadow sighed and got up, letting the pad shift into her armor before activating the lights and closing the visor. There she was able to follow the beeping where it went higher into the mountain before getting even more louder at a small cave entrance. Shadow closed her eyes before crawling in and standing up, looking at the blue crystals in awe. They were so beautiful...

Shaking her head to clear it from her scatterbrain _human_ thoughts, Shadow took a picture of a big bunch of crystals and allowed the pad to send a signal off to _Nemesis_, where she knew Soundwave would definitely get it. She walked down the cave deeper, stopping when she saw metal in the corner. Shadow knelt beside the metal orb, pressing her metal covered hands against the sensor pads, the there was a chirp, saying it wasn't accepted to open. She sighed and left the gloves fall off before pressing her human hands into the sensors. Two chirps met her and the cuffs were quickly put back on as she leaned over and saw two tiny forms curled around each other.

"Soundwave?" One asked. He was blue, she noted. Shadow tilted her head curiously and looked at him. "Rumble, Soundwave is here!" He was speaking to the red and black one.

He onlined his optics and looked at Shadow carefully. "That's a femme!" Rumble exclaimed. "But Soundwave only said an organic could open the pod. How did she open it?" Shadow backed away slightly as the two hopped out of the pod. "Aw, slag, you know he's going to offline us if Megatron finds us!"

Shadow felt a twinge of guilt as she backed away, attempting to run away from them. "Hey, where you going?" Frenzy asked. Shadow froze slightly before snapping around and dashing out of the smaller cavern. She heard two quiet, but noticeable pede steps following her before she took a sharp turn and hid behind a large form of energon crystals. She relaxed against the crystal and sighed in relief just as small servos grabbed her from behind and tried to deck her. Acting on her training, Shadow rolled with it and crushed the black and red one, Rumble. She rolled onto her feet and stood in a fighting stance.

"You wanna rumble?" He grumbled, activating his weapons. Shadow had a slight sweatdrop moment when she saw this, and flex her hand for a nonexistent just to have the armor around her hand to transform into a plasma cannon. She looked at it in slight shock before she realized the suit must have had _some_ sort of subspace. Her grip tightened on a new handle bar and the gun charged slightly. '_This is so weird!_' She thought as Frenzy joined his brother.

"She showed you!" He laughed. "Don't tell me you two are actually going to spar?" Shadow didn't answer – she might be talkative on the Historica base, but she had to be silent on _Nemesis_, or she would be dead as soon as Megatron saw her. There was a silence before Shadow thought of her hand instead of a gun. "You don't talk much, do you?"

Rumble started to chuckle. "Our luck to be rescued by a female Soundwave, huh Frenz?" The two shared a laugh at Shadow's expense before they turned back to her. "What's your name anyways? Can you at least tell us that?" Shadow knew the vocal wires that led to the earbuds that were installed in her suit could also make her voice sound less human, so she decided a few answers wouldn't hurt.

"Told you she couldn't speak!"

"Please, a Cybertronian being mute? It's never happened!"

"There is Bumblebee. He's mute." Frenzy countered.

"Shadow." She finally said, cutting into their argument. Her Cybertronian voice a more metallic and gravelly than her human voice, which meant they couldn't trace it. "I... am... Shadow." She said it slowly, like she didn't know if she was saying it correctly. "I... was... scouting... energon mine."

"She does speak!" Rumble... well, rumbled. "Are you an Autoscum?" Shadow hated the term, but knew she had to play her cards carefully.

"No... faction." She lied. "Lost... long ago. Brother... offline... offender... Autobot medic... First Aid." Their optics widened before a cruel smirk showed on their face plates.

"How would you like to join the 'cons to get revenge on the Autobots?" Frenzy offered. Shadow knew they had no authority – well, they carried Soundwave's but the power to join the ranks was within the leader and Second In Command – but she could easily get into the ranks then. There had to be a catch!

"The... catch?" She asked.

The twins shared a look. This femme practically knew them!"Let us see your facial plates. Soundwave doesn't wear his when it's just us." Rumble and Frenzy said together. Shadow felt panic inside her as she shook her head.

"Not possible!" She practically yelled. They narrowed their optics and Shadow realized she had answered too quickly – it was just quick enough for the voice modification not to grab and mix up, making her voice human again.

"What's the damage if you show us your facial plates? Why did your voice sound like a fleshy?" Rumble demanded. Shadow's hands became fists again as she began berating herself on speaking slower. She _couldn't_ tell them. They could easily kill her themselves, never mind Megatron! Her saving grace was – and probably will be the last time – Soundwave when he and several Decepticon drones cut down a large section of the rock wall Shadow had crawled through.

"Boss!" Frenzy cried out as he and Rumble caught sight of Sondwave. The TIC himself couldn't see them because Shadow was in the way, but as soon as she had stepped aside, the two cassetticons ran to Soundwave and launched themselves on his outstretched hand. "We're back! We onlined and chased the femme down for you!"

"Femme: State designation." Soundwave ordered. To Shadow, it looked like he was keeping the cassetticons as close to his spark as he could without actually holding them to his spark.

"Shadow." She answered, trying not to shift or tap her fingers on her leg. "I... found this deposit. I have... no need for... this much energon." '_No need for any energon to be truthful_.' She added in her mind. Shadow finally got the pop up on the HUD saying that she was able to speak properly without pausing every few words for them to be disguised. "I will not go to Autobots. They offlined my brother. I wish to join." There was a tense silence before Soundwave extended his other hand.

"Femme: come with Soundwave." He ordered. Shadow knew her visor could be lit a color to match her mood if she was being very expressive or the emotions were too much, so she wasn't surprised when the edges of the HUD had red around it. Forcing herself to calm down, Shadow slowly walked towards him, noticing that the drones had already gotten to work. She looked at his hand – it was three feet off the ground – and then her armored legs. The highest she could jump was two feet. Was he actually expecting her to make the jump? She took a deep breath and her armor vented as she jumped much higher than she thought she was going to get.

She stumbled when she landed, but quickly straighten and saw Frenzy and Rumble sitting on his other hand, backs against his digits, looking happy and relaxed. Shadow smiled as she saw this, feeling something that she had always squished into the ground growing up with the Historica. She finally felt fatigue wash over her and tried not to sway and fall over. She succeed in the 'not fall over' part, but not the 'don't sway'.

"Femme: rest." Soundwave said. Shadow stumbled and fell on her aft when he picked his servo back up, making them laugh. She shot them a dirty look, making them laugh even more. She decided not to spoil the moment and let her own back relax on Soundwave's digits, which had curled enough for her to rest comfortably against them. '_Does he already know my secret? How much longer do I have to live the moment he steps onto _Nemesis_?_' She thought as she fell asleep.

**~Hope For All~**

Shadow woke up to the warmth surrounding her disappearing, causing her to open her eyes and turn on the lights. She was in a berth room she didn't know the layout to and there were a squawk of a bird along with two laughs. Shadow felt a shudder run down her spine as she felt cold for the first time in years and sat up, noticing she was on a berth – a tiny one, about six to seven feet long – while there was a large Cyberbird, Cybercat, and the two minicons. The Cyberbird chirped before taking off and landing beside her. Shadow forced herself not to tension or react negatively as the femme bird tilted her helm towards the humanformer.

"Is she up Laserbeak?" Rumble called. Shadow slowly got up and peered over the edge of the berth and figured it was about ten feet off of the ground. The Cybercat saw this and growled at her, making her flinch back. "Aw, don't be like that Ravage. Shadow won't hurt us!" The cat just growled again before slinking off into a corner, vanishing into the dark.

"Don't mind Ravage." Frenzy told her as she slowly lowered herself off of the edge and let herself fall the rest of the way. "He's just mad because Soundwave put you on his berth."

"I did not intend to go into recharge." She said, bowing her head a little. "When will Soundwave return?" Rumble and Frenzy let out a 'coughing' laugh as Laserbeak clicked happily. "Did I miss something?"

"You sound human again." Rumble answered, making Shadow clamp her hands over her throat. Her voice modification must've turned off when she fell asleep. "Just tell us the truth, why won't you show us your facial plates?" Frenzy winked at Laserbeak, who went to stand behind Shadow, her beak right where the hidden button was on Shadow's armor.

Shadow backed up, right into Laserbeak, and the Cyberbird's beak hit the button. As the warnings popped up on the HUD, Shadow let out a very human shriek and darted into the shadows, desperately hitting the button on her hip, getting even more warnings. '_NO, NO, THIS CAN'T HAPPEN! DANNI, OPI, WHY DID YOU DESGIN IT WITH THE BUTTON THERE?!_' She screamed as the last warning on her HUD popped up.

_Armor subspace damaged – instant retraction. Do not activate for 72 hours._

Shadow felt tears streaming down her face as she felt the visor slowly retract into her head band. She heard growling and remembered faintly that Ravage had slunk into this corner to 'mope'. Her heart stopped as she slowly turned to see the silver Cybercat snarling at her. Finally, her human brain finally clicked all of her language training in as he stalked forward two steps before crouching down.

"_**HUMAN! MUST EXTERMINATE ALL PESTS!**_"

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TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO/CHANGE AND I WILL ATTEMPT IT IF IT FITS WITH THE PLOT!


	4. Caught Too Soon

Because everyone has to have an OoC Character at least once in the story. And I'm not talking about Ravage. Review answers!

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**Lightning Prime: is that a good or bad 'dang'? I'm glad you like Tetra-Shadow (Name will be explained in chapter) and that the story interests you.**

**Answerthecall: I'm just evil on cliffhangers =D Glad you liked it!**

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I do not own Transformers! I am merely using the characters for my story.

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**Warnings: Violence due to: blood, energon, war, torture, and stubborn factions. Sexual content can, but will not exclude: Sexual jokes, sexual tension, mentions of sexual activities, the 'Talk' for both humans and Cybertronians, extreme humor during chapter breaks if possible. Borderline 'T-M' rating.**

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_Shadow felt tears streaming down her face as she felt the visor slowly retract into her head band. She heard growling and remembered faintly that Ravage had slunk into this corner to 'mope'. Her heart stopped as she slowly turned to see the silver Cybercat snarling at her. Finally, her human brain finally clicked all of her language training in as he stalked forward two steps before crouching down._

_"__**HUMAN! MUST EXTERMINATE ALL PESTS!**__"_

Shadow hit the deck just as Ravage jumped, making him faceplant into the metal all behind her. '_Go to the pit kitty! I'm not joining my human parents so soon!_' She thought, debating on staying in that shadows or running out in front of the cassetticons. She never got the chance as Ravage pounced on her, sending them tumbling into the light. Ravage pinned Shadow down by her shoulders and she growled herself, kicking up with her legs and making him fly off her, but not without him scratching through her shoulders. '_Damnit!_' She snarled internally.

"Whoa, she was human!" Frenzy's voice said. "oh...oh slag, _RAVAGE LEAVE HER ALONE!_" Shadow, meanwhile, was backing up while holding her shoulders. Her clothes – due to the fact that they were her armor – was stronger than human clothes, way stronger, but Ravage had been able to get a small scratch on her right shoulder. Rumble and Frenzy rushed forward to calm the Cybercat while Laserbeak swooped down, grabbed Shadow around her abdomen, and took her up to Soundwave's berth, a place so high only Laserbeak and Soundwave could reach. The Cybercat hissed and yowled, trying to get to his prey, but was unable to do so.

As soon as Laserbeak let go of Shadow, the human shrank into the corner to the berth, looking at the cassetticons with wide, frightened green eyes. "_I won't hurt you._" She heard the femme click, trying to approach the human, but stopped when she sensed the human's heartbeat double. The twins finally got Ravage under and Laserbeak transported both up to the berth as well. "_She smells of fear and worry._"

"Are you okay?" Rumble asked, slowly approaching the human.

"Please... if you're going to do it, make it painless. It's more than I deserve." She said, hiding her face in her hands and letting her shoulder shake. The cassetticon looked at his brother and sister before Frenzy went to her and removed her hands.

"Are you hurt?" He asked. Shadow looked up in shock and moved her red-orange hair out of instinct and showed the scratch, which was now more or less a large cut. "How is it not worse?" He asked curiously as both him and Rumble looked at the wound.

"Why are you doing this?" She whispered as Laserbeak took off, grabbed something, and returned to show the thing she grabbed was a couple of rags. The three looked at her, all wondering what she was talking about. "Why are you being nice? I'm a human, you're Cybertronian. We don't mix, especially if you're a Decepticon! Why am I getting the special treatment?"

"Would you like to be slagged by Ravage?" Rumble asked shortly, embarrassed about the true answer.

"No." Shadow replied in a quick and quiet tone. What was her real name, Frenzy wondered as he gently pressed rag to her shoulder. Where did her armor go?

"What's your name?" He asked after a klick of silence.

"Erm, my adopted family calls me Shadow, but my given name is Tetra." Shadow-Tetra, or was it Tetra-Shadow, answered, squirming a bit. "You.. you aren't going to tell Soundwave, are you?" She asked, sounding even more nervous than she looked.

"_You'd have to worry more about ST-3V3 than Soundwave as long as you don't leave this room without your... armor._" Laserbeak answered with a few clicks. ST-3V3... Shadow blinked and realized that this was the 'Steve' they were talking about, which made her start laughing.

"Oh primus, ST-3V3 is Steve?! This day is getting better!" She said with a wide smile. It instantly dropped though. "Why aren't you going to tell Soundwave though? Aren't I a serious breach in security?" Te twins looked away, slightly ashamed while Laserbeak clicked uneasily. Something was going on.

"We... we, uh, owe you." Rumble mumbled. "If it wasn't for you, we would be in stasis until a different fleshy freed us. You just stumbled on us, didn't you? How come you have Cybertronian tech if you're just human?"

"_You smell familiar._" Laserbeak added. "_Almost like Flamefang._" Shadow winced, knowing Flamefang was Froth.

"He betrayed us for the..." Frenzy snorted, but then dropped off. "You work for the Historica faction." Shadow flinched as she heard the common mispronunciation of her factions name. "Why is there a human among the Historican?"

"Historica is the plural." Shadow snapped. "And they raised me after my creators were killed. It's the only life I've ever known." They stayed silent as Ravage stalked around the berth, his red eyes desperately trying to find a way to get to the human.

"Do you know him? Do you know Flamefang?" Frenzy asked. Shadow nodded, her hand reaching up to grasp the two necklaces around her neck. One was the tracker that let Froth know her vitals and the other was one she had since birth.

"Yeah, but he's called by a different name." Shadow answered with a smile. "He's the second in command of the Historica. My adopted father too."

"Leave it to 'Fang to become a soft-spark." Rumble snorted. Shadow frowned and shook her head.

"Actually, he's really strict. Took me forever to get him to let me spar against anyone but him and Byte." She corrected. "So... when will Soundwave get back from where ever he went?"

"_Soon._" Laserbeak clicked. "_Activate your armor._" Shadow felt her heart drop and looked at her hand.

"I... Ravage messed up the retraction system. I can't activate my armor for 72 breems. Until then, I either have to stay hidden from everybot or show myself for Soundwave as a human. I don't know what would happen if I managed to bring the system back online before the self repair was done." Shadow answered sheepishly. The casseticons shared a worried and scared look as they went to stand a half a berth away, as she could obviously understand the Cybertronian Laserbeak was speaking.

**~Hope For All~**

"_What do you think?_" Frenzy asked as they formed a triangle.

"_79% chance of offlining if Tetra-Shadow manages to get systems online before self repair is finished._" Laserbeak answered. "_Chances of being offlined while hiding: 69%. Chances of being offlined with Soundwave knowing of her true race: 46%._"

"_So it sounds like boss can protect her the best._" Rumble mused. "_Wonder how he'll take it._"

"_Not good._" Frenzy and Laserbeak both said. "_He'll definitely distrust her, but we have to make sure she has a good reason on having Cybertronian tech and wanting to join the Decepticons besides she's a Historican._" Frenzy continued.

"_What about the Autobots trying to save the town, but left them there? We don't have Tetra-Shadow's last name, so he can't trace her._" Laserbeak offered, feeling it was wrong, lying to their owner like this, but they all owed Tetra-Shadow so much.

"_No... We haven't attacked any human towns in the past... seventeen or so earth years._" Rumble groaned. "_Can't we just tell him the-?_"

"_Chance of Tetra-Shadow online after the truth is revealed: 0%._" Laserbeak answered dully. The twins slumped as their younger sister said that and looked at the human, who was looking around Soundwave's quarters as much as she could while on the berth. "_Chance of Tetra-Shadow online after misinformation is given: 62%._"

"_You're saying there's still a chance that Soundwave would offline her?!_" Frenzy snapped, looking at her instantly. "_She'd be offline before our debt would be repaid._" They felt their symbiont bond grow closer and Laserbeak had the twins grab either side of her wings as she picked Tetra-Shadow up – getting a human noise in response, a squeak like a glitchmouse – and deposited under the berth, making sure the twins would watch Ravage and the human as she flew out and greeted Soundwave.

"_Laserbeak: Report status on femme designated as Shadow._" He ordered.

"_Femme is not what we expected. She has a very good reason to join despite her... disadvantage._" Laserbeak answered uneasily, speaking the truth.

"_Ravage: state femme's location._" Soundwave ordered.

"_Femme is under the berth with Rumble and Frenzy. She's a liar master! Do not trust her!_" Ravage yowled, making the two cassetticon twins and human wince as the Cybercat glared at them.

"Femme, Rumble, Frenzy: come." Soundwave said, to which Tetra-Shadow hesitated. Rumble and Frenzy saw this and gently tugged her hands, pulling her with them.

"56% chance of survival if you come with us Tetra-Shadow." Rumble murmured to her. "We have a life debt to pay off to you. If we don't, we're nothing. Honor is something _most_ 'Cons have left."

"And to be without honor is thou's worst sin, for if you have no honor, you have no soul." Tetra-Shadow quoted quietly, remembering her favorite quote from her favorite book. The twins shared a look. How did she know the quote that they lived to? "I read." She simply said, smiling at their expressions. She paused just before they were in Soundwave's view.

"_Boss, we have something to... show you._" Frenzy called. "_Shadow and Ravage had a disagreement and Shadow's armor retracted into her subspace for self repairs._" Sondwave looked at Ravage sharply, who held his head high in pride. "_She really does have a good reason to join us, she just didn't know if she would be accepted without the armor._"

"Soundwave: wishes to speak to femme." The tall mech stated. Tetra-Shadow looked like she was about to have a spark-attack as she slowly stepped into the light. Almost instantly, Ravage growled and hissed, getting ready to pounce. "Query: Why join?" '_Moment of truth._' The cassetticons thought. Shadow held her chin up high and looked right at Soundwave's hidden optics. They all saw deep into her unnatural green eyes as she reached up, pushing a lock of her red-orange hair out of her face. The fear and worry within those eyes made Soundwave wonder what she had to hide.

"The Autobots killed my family. I want revenge on them and the people who helped them." She answered with a murderous glint in her eyes. It actually scared Laserbeak and she clicked nervously. "Disguising as a Cybertronian seemed like a good idea until _somecons _decided to ruin my subspace retraction." She scowled at Ravage and hesitantly looked at Laserbeak, Rumble, and Frenzy. They were the true culprits, but she wasn't going to say that.

"Femme: human, but wishes to be Decepticon?" Soundwave asked, a sense of unease waving off of him and going to his cassetticons through their bond. To think he was under the false thought of her being a symbiont! Tetra-Shadow nodded and the elder twins relaxed their frames slightly. "Armor, destroyed?"

"No. My activated subspace has a 72 breem lock. By now, it's can't activate for another 69 breems." She answered. Soundwave quickly paused the recording he was keeping to make sure his cassetticons had nothing to do with the breem lock or if it was just a system glitch. When he turned the recording back on, he was less than pleased. "Femme: plan to offline Autobots?"

"As many as I can." Tetra-Shadow confirmed, making the three cassettes who knew her true reasons to why she was on _Nemesis_ share a concerned look, wondering if she knew what it meant.

"Femme: Recording will be sent to lord Megatron as soon as armor is online." Soundwave finished, making all of their sparks stop. Megatron would no doubtfully offline her if he was doing a visual recording.

"Is... is the recording visual?" Tetra-Shadow said in a raspy tone. Soundwave looked down at her, his visor hiding his facial plates, which held distrust and slight revulsion as the human addressed him.

"Human: Will talk when addressed." He stated shortly. Tetra-Shadow flinched back and looked at the ground. She felt... extremely scolded, and only Froth could do that.

"But it's not a visual recording, is it boss?" Rumble asked for her.

"Negative. Vocal only." Soundwave relented. He should sell her out. He should kill her now.

So why wasn't he?

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As I said, every story needs an OoC character. I just so happened to choose a main character. Anyways, review and tell me what you want to possibly see in this story, or just to say you like it!


	5. Unlucky Events

I am alive, I swear! I've had a lot to do. My great-grandmother passed away last week and then our van died while we were back in Indiana, so we had to leave our two dogs with my grandfather while we rented a rental, which we have to return by Saturday at noon. Plus almost all of my stories are being rewriting on my other account, which is a total bubble popper if there ever was one. Anyways, the reviews!

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**Answerthecall - Erm... I remember have a debate over the PM before it somehow turned into a which story is better thing... So... how have you been?**

**Guest - Bit late on that, no? I did some research with Answerthecall about it and it was more... I don't have what we talked about anymore, but it isn't targeting Fanfiction this year.**

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Anyways, on to the story! I do not own Transformers!

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**Warnings: Violence due to: blood, energon, war, torture, and stubborn factions. Sexual content can, but will not exclude: Sexual jokes, sexual tension, mentions of sexual activities, the 'Talk' for both humans and Cybertronians, extreme humor during chapter breaks if possible. Borderline 'T-M' rating.**

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Tetra Anne Jones – or Shadow – knew better than to think Ravage was just going to let her be once Soundwave said that she wasn't to be harmed even more than she was. He even took care of her wound – it was far worse than a cut now that the blood was cleaned from it – once Frenzy and Rumble told him over the bond about their debt they owed her. She had crossed Heath – the Historica symbiont Cybercat – one too many times as a preteen and she knew what the Cybercat would do.

As soon as Soundwave with Laserbeak to get human 'nutrients' for Shadow, Rumble and Frenzy instantly tried to stop Ravage, who had lunged for her. "You don't have to protect me from him." She sighed. "I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of a crossed Cybercat, believe me. If he wants to rough me up, let him. He's going to keep going after me when you aren't here if you don't."

"Tetra-Shadow, we'll never leave you alone, even after our debt is repaid!" Frenzy said. Shadow face palmed and shook her head.

"My human name might be Tetra, but it has been years since anyone has called me that. I go by Shadow now." She corrected, feeling embarrassed.

"But Tetra-Shadow sounds cool!" Rumble argued. Frenzy nodded in agreement with his twin and Shadow's shoulder's slumped forward. "Who did you cross...?"

"Heath, formally Heatgorge." She muttered. The neutral cassette was well known as a very vicious symbiont who was a mercenary along with his master until they just disappeared off the grid. "He actually liked me both before and after I crossed him, but during, he would hunt me down and... he had orders not to hurt me, but they never said he couldn't roughen me up or hunt me."

"We still can't let him hurt you while we're around!" Frenzy claimed. Shadow rolled her eyes and stepped over the cassetticons, who went to just below her hips. The moment she was in front of them, Ravage had lunged again and landed his paws on her shoulders, making her head hit the metal with a crack as they landed. Shadow saw stars and made herself relax as she closed her eyes to get rid of them.

"_Slaggit Ravage!_" Rumble snapped. "_Do you realize how mad he's going to be when he gets back to find her in stasis or offline?_" The Cybercat hissed at his younger siblings, but slowly got off of Shadow. She got up with a groan and touched the area that had hit the metal ground. She drew it back to see no blood and sighed in partial relief. "Tetra-Shadow?"

"I'm fine Rumble." She answered with a fuzzy smile. "Just a bit dazed." She slowly stood up and gripped the wall as the world spun. "Okay, maybe more than a bit." She added as she pushed the bile back down from her throat.

"_Look at what you did!_" Frenzy growled at Ravage, who was still looking at Shadow with his 'ears' pinned back. He and his twin turned to her and attempted to help her stand as Soundwave returned with Laserbeak. "Boss, that was... quick." He said, panic in all of them.

"Rumble: Did human behave?" The large mech asked, making Shadow scowl.

"She did." Rumble answered, looking at her in concern. Something happened and whatever happened made Soundwave suddenly scoop her in his hand and she felt a scan go through her body. The transformer placed her on the desk and Laserbeak attepted to land beside her, but Soundwave had sent a message saying to stay away from her.

Shadow looked at the three and shurgged before looking back at the mech, flinching when a human appeared from no where. '_A holoform._' She thought, still pinned under Soundwave's hand. She faintly recalled him being telepathic and locked all of her memories of her family behind her strong metal walls. The human leaned forward and Shadow caught a good look at his face. He had deep blue, almost violet and black hair and red eyes which were quickly covered by sunglasses as soon as he saw her looking. "W-What are you doing?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Femme: Cease resistance." He ordered, placing a holo-hand on her temple. Slowly, Shadow felt herself fall asleep and Soundwave enter her mind. '_WALLS!_' her mind shrieked as the lively part of her rushed forward making sure there were little to no flaws. The only thing he had to do to break them was... '_He won't do that._' She thought firmly before locking it within the walls.

'_Femme: Cease resistance._' Soundwave ordered inside her mind. She shivered, but her walls didn't fall. Quickly, behind the walls, Shadow attempted to order her memories to where only she could make sense of where they were. Only Cybertronians could truly do that, but she could still stump him for a while. She winced as the wall was punched after she had sensed him 'circling' them, looking for flaws.

'_Leave me be!_' She snapped. '_If you want a memory, here's one!_' She tossed her human families deaths just outside of the wall and made sure not to include the Histoica. She felt him pull back slightly before something slammed into the walls. It made her flinch even more, but she sighed in relief as they stayed intact. Then what she feared came a second later as a hand was dragged across the wall, gentle to the touch. Living wit transformers only caused Shadow to end up with a headache more than five days a week. While the Historica raised her, they didn't understand the words 'gentle' and 'soft-skinned' as good as they should have. They hadn't realized that she wanted, no _needed_, human contact, a gentle touch, while growing up. They even didn't ave holoforms until a year ago.

Panicking as the walls cracked and smugness that wasn't hers floated towards her, Shadow – no, _Tetra Anne Jones_ – flung her mind in a frenzied state, everything, her pain, sorrow, hate, love, want, need, towards Soundwave, forcing him to back out of her mind completely. Tetra's eyes snapped open and she coughed, her head pounding worse than ever. She closed her eyes and felt tears streaming down, even though it hurt to cry, nevertheless move. She let herself fall into the darkness that she had seen behind her eyelids as there was a familiar buzz of a holoform disappearing. '_Why does he have a holoform...?_' She thought just before her mind shut down.

**~Hope For All~**

Tetra woke up with her head barely pounding, but the blaring alarms were changing that. She sat up and noticed that she was on a berth. The same berth she had woken up on. She looked around and then looked at her arms to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Tetra took a deep breath before jumping down and falling to her hands and knees. She hissed, but stood up and stumbled to the doors. If anything, the alarms grew louder. Tetra glared at the door as she hit the button to open it, thankful that the Historica, Autobots, and Decepticons bases were of the same design on opening the doors. She quickly slid into the shadows and walked with her right shoulder touching the wall. She heard snarling and peeked around the corner to see the Autobot Bumblebee firing his weapon at the badly injured Ravage, who was blocking the way to the quarters. Was he... trying to protect her?

Pain hit her as the twins pushed their elder sibling out of the way and the three landed in a mess, allowing Bumblebee to lock on them again. '_No!_' Her mind screamed as all sense of staying hidden while they got thoroughly slagged flew out of the window. She let out a yell and rushed forward, hitting the button and knew as soon as she opened her eyes to see the HUD that she was seriously slagged herself. '_Five hours too soon._'

She forced herself to concentrate on the surprised Autobot as he slowly came to. "_Soundwave got another cassette?_" He asked. Tetra silently growled as he shrugged and began to charge his cannon again. What he didn't expect was for her to be quick. She darted forward and past him, grabbing a wire on his ankle and using it to make her spin around and able to climb his armor. Bumblebee danced around, trying – and failing – to get the human off of him while Tetra reached his wings.

'_Plasma gun._' She thought as her gloved right hand transformed. She flipped onto his neck and fired a small piece of armor off of his arm. He whined and managed to slam her into the ground. She laid still for a second, sweat building on her brow as the suit began to reach maximum temperatures. '_Gotta end this now._' She thought. She slowly got up, hugging her stomach, and glared at the bot, who was turning to the others, who were looking at the human in disguise in shock and worry. Tetra lunged forward and stabbed her left hand, which had held the energon sword Froth gave her for her 16th birthday, into his ankle before making the armor let go of it. '_Danni... can... give it... to... me later._' She thought as the scout finally ran away.

"Tetra-Shadow?" Frenzy asked as the twins ran to her, stopping a ways away. "Are you okay?" Tetra looked up slowly and saw her HUD and mask begin to crack. She licked her way too dry lips before answering.

"Five hours." She whispered. "If they had come five hours later... I'd be fine." She felt the mask flip up and the lights shattered before Tetra collapsed, the heat from the suit too much for her body. She heard yells from the twins as all three cassettes rushed forward. Frenzy hit the torn button to retract the armor, but nothing happened. Rumble, on the other hand, began to delatch the burning armor, the twins grimacing as the smell of slightly burnt flesh met their olfactory sensors.

"Ravage, contact Soundwave. _Now._" Frenzy ordered as he took off Tetra's shoulder and neck armor to reveal shiny, welting red flesh. He managed to get the final bit off just as the silent mech reached them, his hidden optics slowly examining the fallen human.

"Status." He inquired.

"She's going to offline if we don't get help boss." Rumble answered nervously as he and Frenzy carefully set Tetra down before her face contorted in pain. The two cassetticons flinched at the sight, not knowing what was wrong. Cybertronian faceplates didn't do _that!_

"And if Knockout found out about her, we'd all be seriously slagged." Frenzy added. Soundwave, who had looked up the face Tetra had, pulled out a polishing cloth and placed Tetra on it, the pain on her face disappearing ever so slightly. Soundwave stood up, but he didn't return to his quarters. Instead, he started heading to the flight deck.

A mental war was going on with the mech's processor as he was walking. If he kept the human with them, then she would offline from 'infection' and will no longer be any help on spying on the Autobots. If she went with the Autobots, she would be treated, but unless she ran off in the middle of a battle where he was, they would never get her back. A whimper of pain caused him to scan the human once more before he quickly determined what he should choose.


End file.
